London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202206325)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202206325

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

10 October 2022

Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration’, for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

1.     The complaint is about the landlord’s:

1. response to the resident’s reports about repairs to the fence;
2. complaints handling.

Background

2.     The resident is an assured tenant. The landlord is a housing association. The resident’s garden is composed of a boundary fence which separates her garden from the neighbour’s.

3.     The resident, on 1 February 2022, reported that a large palm tree had blown over and damaged her fence due to a storm. The landlord advised the resident that the fence, being a boundary fence, would not fall within the landlord’s responsibility.

4.     The resident made a formal complaint on 8 March 2022 as she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s refusal to repair the fence. The resident reported to the landlord that she received a quote of £2,300 to fix the fence, but that she did not consider she should be forced to pay this.

5.     In its stage one response issued on 9 March 2022, the landlord reiterated its position to the resident and explained that the fence affected by the storm was a boundary fence. It was, therefore, not the landlord’s responsibility as noted in the landlord’s repairs policy. The resident requested an escalation of her complaint on the same date. At the same time, she also reported having issues with her neighbour.

6.     The landlord issued its stage two response on 9 April 2022. It apologised for the delay to its response. The landlord reiterated its position with regard to the repairs to the fence. The landlord further offered £100 compensation for its “service failures,” being £50 for the inconvenience and distress caused to the resident and £50 for time and effort. 

7.     The resident referred her complaint to this service in June 2022 as she remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s refusal to carry out repairs to her fence.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

8.     The Ombudsman notes that the resident raised concerns about both anti-social behaviour from her neighbour and inspections still to be conducted in relation to the fallen tree. Paragraph 42(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure. The Ombudsman notes that these concerns were not made as a formal complaint to which the landlord has provided a stage one and stage two response. As such, these concerns will not be considered as part of this investigation, however, a recommendation has been made below for the landlord to provide updates to the resident.

Policies and procedures

9.     The landlord’s repair policy states that the landlord is responsible for maintaining the structure and exterior of the home, including walls, roofs, windows, external doors, drains, gutters, external pipes, fences, and gates.

10. The landlord’s repairs policy further clarifies that the landlord is responsible for repairs to fences which separate the garden from a public area. Boundary fences and gates which separate a garden from a neighbour’s garden are the resident’s responsibility.

11. The landlord’s complaint policy states that the landlord will aim to respond to a complaint within 10 working days. In case of escalation, a stage two response will be issued within 20 working days.

Fence repairs

12. It is not disputed that the resident’s fence affected by the storm was dividing her garden from the neighbour’s. As noted above, the landlord’s repairs policy states that fences that separate a resident’s property from their neighbour’s are the responsibility of the resident.

13. The landlord, both in its initial communications with the resident and in its formal responses, reiterated its position that as per its repairs policy, the fence affected was a boundary fence which was not the landlord’s responsibility. The landlord also appropriately signposted the resident to the relevant policy to further clarify its position.

14. The Ombudsman notes that the resident’s neighbour is not a tenant of the landlord, and so the landlord was unable to facilitate any sort of discussion between the parties. The landlord did, however, advise the resident to discuss the repairs to the fence with her neighbour, which was reasonable in the circumstances.

15. In summary, while the Ombudsman understands the resident’s frustration, it is the Ombudsman’s opinion that the landlord acted appropriately throughout the process by explaining its responsibility set out in its repair policy and by providing clear communications to the resident.

Complaints handling

16. As noted above, the landlord’s complaint policy states that it will aim to respond to the resident’s complaint within 10 working days of the resident’s complaint request. In a case of an escalation, a stage two response will be issued within 20 working days.

17. In this case, it is not disputed that while the landlord appropriately issued its stage one response within its complaints policy timeframes, there was a delay in issuing its stage two response. The resident requested an escalation of her complaint on 9 March 2022, and the landlord responded on 9 April 2022. This was a total of 24 working days, which was outside of the timescales noted in the landlord’s policy.

18. If the landlord expects a delay to occur and cannot respond in a timely manner, the Ombudsman would expect a landlord to communicate this to the resident and provide the reasons for its delay. Although the landlord failed to update the resident and communicate that a delay was expected, it nevertheless appropriately apologised for its delay. It also appropriately explained that due to a change required by the Housing Ombudsman with regards to complaint escalations, the landlord had experienced a high demand in escalation requests which led to delays in issuing the resident’s stage two response.

19. The Ombudsman notes the landlord awarded £100 compensation for its “service failures.“ The landlord did not specifically identify what element of its response the compensation related to, however, based on the context of the response, the Ombudsman considers this to relate to the delayed response and the time and trouble the resident expended chasing updates. It would be helpful, however, if the landlord provided a clear breakdown of what any offer of compensation related to.

20. In summary, given that the delay was only a few days beyond the timeframes noted in the landlord’s policy and did not have a dramatic impact on the resident, and given that the landlord acknowledged, apologised, and awarded compensation to remedy its complaint handling failures, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, this amounted to reasonable redress of this element of the complaint.

Determination

21. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s reports about repairs to the fence.

22. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, and in the Ombudsman’s opinion, there was reasonable redress offered by the landlord for its service failure in respect of the complaints regarding its complaints handling.

Recommendations

23. The landlord to contact the resident and provide her with an update regarding the reports made relating to anti-social behaviour.

24. The landlord to contact the resident and provide her with an update on its inspections of the fallen tree.